Study On The Expanded Food Balance Sheet 2006

SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNITY SECRETARIAT
A Report on the Expanded Food Balance Sheets

for the SADC Region
Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Natural

Resources (FANR)
Agricultural Information Management System

(AIMS) of SADC-FANR
May, 2006
Gaborone, BOTSWANA
Report on Expanded Food Balance Sheets for SADC
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The SADC-FANR is committed to expand the FBS analyses for each Member State to
include all possible and locally available food commodities that is, all crops, livestock and
fisheries products, and many other food items. The current FBS have for two decades been
mostly prepared from cereal crops. Since SADC has accorded stable and sustainable food
security a top priority, the aspiration is for over time, to derive from the FBS at least 75% of
the desired 2,700 caloric and 68 grams of proteins intake per person per day in each Member
State1.
However, there are evidences that this desire has not been met because the contributions from
cereal crops alone into the FBS have been insufficient to attain the desirable goal.
Considering that Member States produce different varieties of food crops, keep different
kinds of livestock and the region is endowed with large quantities of inland and marine
fisheries, the SADC-FANR Directorate commissioned a study to identify the mechanisms for
expanding the FBS so that they represent the correct perspective of the food supply and the
food security situations in SADC Member States and the region, in addition to meeting the
desired target.
The output from the study is to recommend to the SADC-FANR Directorate, procedures to
be employed to implement the proposed expanded FBS so that the desired targets are
achieved. In order to accomplish this, the study aimed at documenting and quantifying the
major food commodities produced or available in Member States for inclusion in the
expanded FBS; to assess the reliability of the datasets of these food commodities and suggest
how to improve them; and to propose procedures for aggregating and incorporating different
food commodities into the expanded FBS.
This study undertook detailed interviews and discussions with key professionals engaged in
early warning activities and preparation of FBS as well as in the collection of data and
information on crops, livestock and fisheries in the SADC-FANR, WFP/VAM-Botswana, the
Food and Nutrition Unit of the Ministry of Health in Botswana and different institutions in
Malawi. Additional information was obtained through questionnaires (on crops, livestock and
fisheries production), mailed to designated professionals in all 14 SADC countries as well
consulting various literatures available on the topic.
The study revealed that all 14 countries in the region produce FBS at least once a year.
Furthermore, it was ascertained that although the SADC Member States produce a wide array
of food crops, keep different kinds of livestock and carryout substantial fishing, there is
paucity of reliable data particularly on the production of non-cereal crops, fisheries, and
livestock products as well as on their levels of consumption. It was emphasized that while
accessibility and reliability of data are paramount for the expanded FBS, the dearth of data
was identified as one of the major reasons limiting including other food commodities in the
FBS analysis, besides cereals. However, issues of stereotypes and preferences in food
consumption, localized and seasonality of certain commodities as well as the difficulties of
moving food commodities between different locations particularly in rural areas were among
important reasons given for not including other food items in the FBS analysis.
1
Although according to the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan and the 2004 Dar es Salaam
Declaration on Food Security, the desire has been to obtain the food intake of 2,700 KCal and 68 grams of
proteins per person per day, respectively in each SADC Member State, this report, has estimated as a guide,
2,100 KCal plus 79 grams of proteins and 59 grams of fats per person per day.
2
Specific recommendations for expanding the FBS are presented. In summary, they include
adopting the proposed procedure for preparing FBS, which includes most of food
commodities; enhancing the needed regional and national capacities for obtaining reliable
data; calculating FBS according to the agreed and or established thresholds for requirements
of dietary needs and those developed by FAO; incorporating FBS into an integrated food
security analysis; and sensitizing policy makers and consumers on the importance of the
expanded FBS in the food supply equation and nutritional requirements for the people.
3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Secretariats appreciates and acknowledges the contribution of Dr. Vedasto

Rutachokozibwa who carried out the study on the Expanded Food Balance Sheet on behalf of
the Secretariat. The Secretariats is also greatly indebted to all those who assisted in providing
information, advise and facilities, which made this work possible.
The study was done under the overall supervision and facilitation of the Director of FANR,
Mrs. Margaret Nyirenda, through the Senior Programme Manager - Agricultural Information
Management System (AIMS), Mr. Bentry Chaura.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................. 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ 4
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... 5
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. 7
1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 9
1.1 Organization of the Report ..................................................................................... 9
1.2 Context of Food Balance Sheets ............................................................................ 9
1.3 Conceptual Challenges of Food Balance Sheets ................................................... 10
1.4 Justification for Expanded Food Balance Sheets .................................................. 11
1.5 Purpose and Objectives of the Consultancy .......................................................... 12
1.6 Implementation of the Consultancy ...................................................................... 13
2 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................. 13
2.1 Responses to Questionnaires from Member States ............................................... 13
2.2 Major Food Crops Produced and Reliability of Data ............................................ 14
2.2.1 Food Crops Produced ...................................................................................... 14
2.2.2 Reliability of Crop Production Data and Strategies for Improvement .............. 15
2.3 Livestock Production and Reliability of Data ....................................................... 17
2.3.1 Livestock Products and Utilization .................................................................. 17
2.3.2 Reliability of Livestock Production Data and Strategies for Improvement ....... 18
2.4 Fisheries Production and Reliability of Data ........................................................ 19
2.4.1 Fisheries Products and Utilization ................................................................... 19
2.4.2 Reliability of Fisheries Production Data and Strategies for Improvement ........ 20
3 PLANNING FOR THE EXPANDED FOOD BALANCE SHEETS ........................... 21
3.1 Current Procedures for Preparing Food Balance Sheets in Member States............ 21
3.2 Procedures for Expanding Food Balance Sheets................................................... 21
3.2.1 Prepare Data for Food Balance Sheets............................................................. 21
3.2.2 Use Established and Agreed Nutritional Requirements.................................... 25
3.2.3 Convert Food Commodities into their Nutrient Compositions ......................... 25
3.2.4 Convert Food Commodities into their Nutrient Compositions and Calculate
Food Needs Met ......................................................................................................... 26
3.2.5 Preparing the Expanded Food Balance Sheets ................................................. 31
3.3 Issues Influencing the Expanded Food Balance Sheets in Member States............. 33
3.3.1 Methodologies for Improved Accuracy and Reliability of Data ....................... 33
3.3.2 Integrating Food Balance Sheets in the Broader Food Security Analyses ........ 33
3.3.3 Independence of Technical Analysis ............................................................... 34
3.3.4 Definition of Food .......................................................................................... 35
3.3.5 Definition of Food Balance Sheets .................................................................. 36
4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................................... 36
4.1 Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 36
4.2 Recommendations ............................................................................................... 37
ANNEXES ......................................................................................................................... 39
Annex 1: People Consulted ........................................................................................... 39
Annex 2: References ...................................................................................................... 40
Annex 3a: Survey Questionnaire on Crop Production Utilization and Food Balance
Sheets ............................................................................................................................. 41
Annex 3b: Survey Questionnaire on Crop Production Utilization and Food Balance
Sheets ............................................................................................................................. 47
5
Annex 3c: Survey Questionnaire on Crop Production Utilization and Food Balance
Sheets ............................................................................................................................. 51
Annex 4: Terms of Reference for the Expanded Food Balance Sheet ......................... 54
6
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Percent Production of Cereals and Non-Cereals in Some Member States…………14

Table 2: Average Percent of Food Production by Crop in Tanzania …………………..........15
Table 3: Livestock Products from SADC Member States in 2004 (MT)……………………17
Table 4: Artisanal and Industrial Catches of SADC Countries (MT)………………………..19
Table 5: Standard Format for SADC Food Balance Sheets………………………………….21
Table 6: Calculations used to Obtain Available Food for Consumption in the 2001/02 Market
Year…………………………………………………………………………………………..22
Table 7: Example – Tanzania Food Commodities Production in 2000/01…………………..23
Table 8: Composition of Major Food Commodities in SADC Countries in One Kilogram
(1,000 Grams)………………………………………………………………………………...24
Table 9: Example – Tanzania: Food Composition of Commodities Produced in 2000/01…..26
Table 10: Example – Tanzania: Food Needs Met for 2001/02 Market Year………………...28
Table 11a: Example - Calculating Carbohydrate Food Needs Met from the 2000/01
Production Year in Tanzania…………………………………………………………………29
Table 11b: Example - Calculating Protein Food Needs Met from the 2000/01 Production
Year in Tanzania..……………………………………………………………………………30
Table 11c: Example - Calculating Fats Food Needs Met from the 2000/01 Production Year in
Tanzania..…………………………………………………………………………………….30
Table 12: Example–Expanded Food Balance Sheet for Tanzania for 2001/02 Market Year. 32
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ACRONYMS
AFSAR Annual Food Security Analysis Report
AIMS Agricultural Information and Management System
CAP Consolidated Appeals Process
CFSAM Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission
CHO Carbohydrates
CILSS Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel
DRC The Democratic Republic of Congo
EU European Union
FANR Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization
FBS Food Balance Sheet
FEWS NET Famine Early Warning Systems Network
FSU Food Security Unit
GIEWS Global Information and Early Warning Systems
HAR Harvest Assessment Reports
MMT Million Metric Ton
MT Metric Ton
NDVI Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
NEWU National Early Warning Unit
NVAC National Vulnerability Assessment Committee
PRINT Promotion of Regional Integration in the SADC Livestock Sector
REWS Regional Early Warning System
RFIS Regional Fisheries Information Systems
RISDP Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan
RSA Republic of South Africa
RVAC Regional Vulnerability Assessment Committee
SADC Southern African Development Community
SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
USDA United States Department of Agriculture
USAID United States Agency for International Development
USGS United States Geological Survey
VAC Vulnerability Assessment Committee
WFP World Food Programme
WFS World Food Summit
WRSI Water Requirement Satisfaction Index
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1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Organization of the Report

The report begins by describing the context and brief history of FBS globally and in the
SADC Region and Member States. The conceptual challenges of FBS as well as the origin,
purpose and justification and the implementation of the study are also described. These issues
have been addressed in Section 1.
Section 2, presents the findings of the study and discusses the implications of those findings
towards preparing sound FBS. Additionally, factors influencing the accessibility and
reliability of data and information used to prepare FBS are presented and discussed.
Section 3 details procedures to be considered in the analysis of the expanded FBS focusing
on the significance of incorporating all available food commodities in addition to adhering to
the standard daily nutritional requirements and the established FAO food compositions.
Additionally, other factors influencing the accessibility and reliability of data and information
used to prepare FBS, as well as the usability of the expanded FBS are presented and
discussed.
The conclusions and recommendations are provided in Section 4. They emphasize the need
for the FBS analyses to go beyond the current practice, which is limited to cereal crops only,
and in the process of doing so improving analyses of nutritional requirements of the people in
the SADC Member States. Annexes are presented at the end of the report.
1.2 Context of Food Balance Sheets

The food balance sheets (FBS) have been used in the food security analyses for more than 70
years. The first attempts were in the 1930s when FBS were used for comparing food
consumptions among nations (FAO, 2001). As interests and usefulness of FBS increased,
improved methodologies were developed to satisfy those needs—the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the FAO Global Information and Early Warning
System (GIEWS), are particularly recognized for early innovations of FBS (Rook, 1994).
Individual countries in the world have since been encouraged and assisted to produce FBS.
The SADC-FANR and Member States started preparing FBS in 1986 following the
establishment of the Regional Early Warning System (REWS) and corresponding National
Early Warning Units (NEWUs). All Member States produce almost identical FBS, at least
once a year.
The FBS approach has facilitated SADC to assess the regional food supply and demand
situations as well as aggregating and comparing levels of food availability across the
countries in the region. Similarly, SADC Member States use FBS as a tool for estimating the
total domestic supply and comparing them to the national demands subsequently establishing
national food deficit or surplus leading to estimating exports, and commercial imports as well
as potential food aid needs.
Other importance of FBS are well documented in literature, notably, the FAO Handbooks on
Food Balance Sheet produced in 2001 and 1991, and the Food Balance Sheet General
Guidelines produced by Rook in 1994. They include the potential for trend analyses of FBS
to unveil changes that may have taken place in a country towards meeting nutritional
requirements, the potential for developing projections for future food supply needs of a
country or region, and basis for policy analysis and decisions to ensure food security of the
people.
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1.3 Conceptual Challenges of Food Balance Sheets

Conceptually, FBS are a useful tool for estimating aggregate food supply and possible food
aid requirements for a country in a given period, which is very important for the government
to plan food security strategies. However, FBS can only estimate the food availability and
consumption from the supply side. In most countries FBS are normally prepared after harvest
and because of that, they are not considered as an early warning monitoring tool, which takes
place during the agricultural season. However, FBS have the potential of contributing to the
understanding of impending food security problems in the coming consumption year, if
integrated in a broader food security and nutritional analyses, which in addition to estimating
the food supply, combine issues of food accessibility, utilization and stability.
There are several other limitations of FBS that require explaining. First, because most FBS
are prepared primarily from cereals, they do not provide food consumption differences
among populations of different livelihood systems, socio-economic groups or geographical
areas, and the seasonality of the food supply within a country. FBS have so far not been used
to disaggregate food security analysis to decentralized levels of governments, that is,
region/province, district or community. They do not account for differences of vulnerability
among populations and fail to take into account the various coping mechanisms employed by
the people during periods of food stress. Furthermore, FBS do not address the importance of
other key elements in the food security equation, which take into account aspects of income,
employment, markets, remittances, and health and nutrition of the people.
Second, the problem of FBS is exacerbated by the fact that production data may not always
be available and or reliable for all required commodities because collecting reliable statistics
in the region and member states is often crippled by many technical and financial constraints.
These limitations include the difficulties in estimating reliably, the production of crops that
are continuously harvested at certain intervals over time or those to which a portion of the
crop is not harvested and held back as reserve; constraints in estimating unrecorded or
informal cross border imports and exports (although this is currently being addressed by
FEWS NET and WFP activities on cross border assessments); inadequate mechanisms to
estimate smallholder consumptions of products such as milk, eggs and fish; and the
inadequate financial resources at region and national levels to sustain the rather costly
national data collection systems and annual food commodity surveys. The financial
constraints are currently a major drawback limiting the effective performance on food
security activities in the SADC-FANR and to some extent NEWUs in Member States to
collect reliable data.
Third, there is growing concern that the focus on cereals particularly in the analysis of
national FBS is an inadequate indicator of food availability. Other food crops such as roots
and tubers, and livestock and fisheries products represent a larger share of the per caput
caloric consumption in localized areas in Member States. However, even if there is interest to
expand the cereal balance sheet to include more food items, the prerequisite data are often
inaccessible. For, example, the conspicuous absence or incompleteness and inaccuracy of the
basic livestock and fisheries production statistics in Member States and the region make
possibilities of including these items in the FBS difficult.
Fourth, the approach of preparing FBS from analyzing cereal crops only has led to the
underestimating the food supply and consequently overestimating food deficits (often
calculated in cereal requirements only). As a result of this, most national and regional
consolidated appeals processes (CAP) are based on the cereal food balance analysis only, and
tend to concentrate on offsetting the national cereal gap without considering the contributions
of other significant food commodities in the supply equation. Subsequently, those resources,
10
which would have been allocated to other national or regional development programmes, are
sometimes unnecessarily spent on food aid. Additionally, the impacts of extra food supply
from either commercial imports or food aid has more often than not dampened local market
prices consequently creating disincentives to future productions.
It is undisputable that the statistics of FBS play an important role in presenting a
comprehensive food supply situation of a country or region. Therefore, the above challenges
should derive to the improvement of methods for preparing sound FBS while considering
incorporating other dimensions in the evolving and analytical early warning and food security
and nutritional systems. Some of these evolving methods are discussed in Sections 2 and 3 in
this report.
1.4 Justification for Expanded Food Balance Sheets

Ideally, and in order to comprehensively depict the overall food supply in a country/region
using the FBS approach, all possible food commodities, available in the country, should be
quantified and included in the analysis. An all inclusive analysis of food items in the FBS not
only does it present the country’s status of the food supply during a specific period but it also
reveals the ability of that country to meet the nutritional requirements of its people.
The target in SADC is to derive from FBS at least 75% of the desired 2,700 KCal and 68
grams per person per day in each Member State. Evidently, this goal has not been achieved
because the current approach for preparing FBS uses primarily cereal food commodities,
which have been found insufficient. Various reports and literature such as the FAO GIEWS
Food Supply Situation and Crop Prospect in Sub-Saharan Africa (see No.2 July, 1995 and No. 2
June 2004) indicate that the percentage of cereal caloric intake per person per day in almost all
SADC countries has been below the standard requirements, and that they have either
remained unchanged or have actually decreased.
The reasons for excluding other food commodities in the FBS analyses have largely been
attributed to the inherent assumption that cereal crops were the most significant food
commodities proving the caloric intake requirements of the majority of the population in the
SADC Member States. Additionally, it was felt that the availability of data on the production
statistics of non-cereal food crops and other food commodities together with the mechanisms
for calculating their demand or utilization were not sufficient to warrant their inclusion in
FBS. Consequently, the patterns and formats for preparing FBS have remained consistent
cereal balance based across most SADC countries. Even in those countries where efforts have
been made to incorporate other non-cereal crops and livestock products into the FBS, those
commodities have been analyzed as substitutes to cereals.
However, recent trends in the production of food commodities, changes in diets and eating
habits, and advances in methodological innovations all point to the need to move away from
relying exclusively on cereal based FBS as the only most important food supply analytical
tool.
The importance of non-cereal crops, in the region as a source of food cannot be over
emphasized especially considering that the recurring droughts resulting from the increasingly
variable and unreliable rainfall are affecting food production. The negative impacts of the
reduced rainfall performance have been on declining cereal production consequently
diminishing their contributions to nutritional requirements although the low productivity has
also been exacerbated by inadequate investment in the production inputs as well as poor crop
husbandry practices. For example, whereas the population in the SADC Region has increased
by 39.4% from 152 million people in 1990 to 212 million in 2003, the overall growth rate of
cereal production has been about 13.7% from 22.1 million metric tons (MMT) to 25.1 MMT
11
during the same period (SADC-FANR, 2005). This increase represents a disproportionate
one-third of the population growth.
Similarly, because other crops particularly pulses, roots and tubers are tolerant to low
moisture conditions compared to cereals, and that they provide alternative sources of food to
fall-back on during times of extreme moisture stress conditions is a sufficient reason for
including them in FBS. Those non-cereal crops are significantly important in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. Moreover, some countries in the
region have embarked on promoting crops such as cassava and sweet potatoes as “food
security crops”.
The potential for the contribution of livestock products to the daily caloric intake in the
region is substantial. For example, in 2004, livestock products contributed nutritional
requirements approximating 4.2-4.6 MMT of cereal equivalent in the region (SADC-FANR,
2005). At sub-national levels, there are also many groups of people, such as in pastoral and
agro-pastoral areas, for which cereal availability cannot on its own be a sufficient indicator of
the food security situation in those zones. However, poor access and reliability of livestock
production data compromise possibilities of including them in FBS analyses.
There are also, localized areas in the SADC Member States where the livelihoods of a
considerable segment of the population depend on the fisheries sub-sector. For example, in
2000, it was estimated that some 200,000 people in the region were directly employed in the
fisheries industries while over 1.7 million people were dependent on fisheries activities
(SADC-FANR, 2002). Most of these populations stretch along the coastline and areas
surrounding different inland waters of Member States. The consumption of fish per capita is
comparatively higher in Angola, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania and Zambia, than
in other Member States. Again, inadequate data limits including these commodities in FBS
analyses.
These developments, further point to the importance of incorporating most of the available
food commodities in FBS analyses in order to clearly determine the food supply and the
overall food security situation in Member States. A further understanding of the dynamics of
the people’s dietary changes, supported by the improved knowledge on livelihood systems;
and advances made in the development of different methodologies on food security,
strengthens the need to broaden the analyses of FBS. Some of these evolving methods are
discussed in a Sections 2 and 3 in this report.
1.5 Purpose and Objectives of the Consultancy

The aim of the proposed expanded FBS is to identify the mechanisms for incorporating into
the FBS analyses most of the available and edible food commodities; that is, all food crops,
and livestock and fisheries products, and most other foods such processed products; to at least
meet 75% of the desired daily per caput caloric intake in each country. Specifically, the study
seeks to answer the following questions: a) what are the main food commodities commonly
produced or available in Member States, which can be included in the expanded FBS? b)
How reliable are the datasets of these main food commodities and how can their reliability be
improved? c) How can the data on these commodities be incorporated into the expanded
FBS; and what are the appropriate methods to be used in aggregating the various foods in
FBS?
While it may currently not be possible to include all food commodities available to people in
the FBS analyses, there is, expressed desire to expand the food items in calculating FBS in
order to adequately analyze the food security situation in Member States and the SADC
12
region. The bottom line is to be able to determine how adequate are Member States meeting
the nutritional requirements for a normal life of their people.
The empirical information collected and analyzed throughout the course of the study will be
the basis for recommending mechanisms for incorporating different food commodities in the
expanded FBS analysis.
1.6 Implementation of the Consultancy

This section summarizes the steps undertaken in the implementation for the expanded FBS
for SADC Region and Member States. The process included detailed interviews and
discussions with most of key professionals in the SADC-Food, Agriculture and Natural
Resources (FANR) Secretariat; UN-World Food Programme (WFP); the Food and Nutrition
Unit of the Ministry of Health in Botswana. Additional information was obtained from
visiting Malawi, where the consultant held discussions with different technical persons
engaged in early warning activities, preparation of FBS as well as in the collection of data
and information on crops, livestock and fisheries. Annex 1 presents the people contacted.
Although it was originally planned to visit at least three Member States during this
assessment, this was not possible for a third country because of logistical problems including
series of Ester Public Holidays in April.
The consultant in collaboration with the SADC-FANR Secretariat, developed, three sets of
questionnaires—on the preparations of FBS and the production and utilization of food crops,
livestock fisheries products, respectively. These questionnaires were mailed to designated
NEWU professionals in all 14 SADC Member States to be returned duly filled to the
Agricultural Information and Management System (AIMS) of SADC-FANR Directorate. The
questionnaires were intended to solicit a wider range of information including production
statistics, and mechanisms for improving the collection and reliability of data for feeding into
the FBS.
Additionally, the consultant reviewed different literatures available on the topic, particularly
the FAO and SADC-FANR recent publications on FBS and related disciplines.
The results of study were presented at a briefing session comprising of representatives from
the SADC-FANR Directorate on May 2, 2005. The draft report has been reviewed by various
staff from the SADC-FANR Directorate and their comments together with those from the
briefing incorporated in the final report. This consultancy was conducted between April 4 and
May 4, 2006. The final report was submitted to the SADC-FANR (AIMS). Whereas, the
reviewers provided invaluable contributions to the report, the consultant for this expanded
FBS work takes full responsibility for the final report.
2 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
2.1 Responses to Questionnaires from Member States

Of the 14 Member States only four or 29% returned at least one of the three sets of
questionnaires sent. This indicates a poor response rate from the Member States. However,
this is not uncommon because cases of poor responses from Member States have been
reported in previous studies where by deadlines, the return rates of questionnaires averaged
around 29%. This is not particularly encouraging considering that the information from
Member States was very important to facilitate the planned analyses. The poor responses
made it difficult for the consultant to obtain primary data, thus compelling relying on
13
secondary information and literature for most of the analyses. Efforts are needed to improve
responses from Member States.
Recommendation:
Use existing EWS in SADC to set standards, to redefine the terms of reference and to
develop binding guidelines and understanding for enforcing the agreed terms of reference
among FSU/NEWUs in Member States to submit the required services and data. Action by
SADC-FANR Directorate.
2.2 Major Food Crops Produced and Reliability of Data

2.2.1 Food Crops Produced
Available statistics from literature and from this study show that a wide variety of food crops
are grown in the region. They include cereal crops (maize, rice/paddy, sorghum, millet, and
wheat). The non-cereal crops are composed of cassava, beans and pulses, sweet and
round/irish potatoes, bananas, groundnuts, other nuts and oil seeds, as well as assorted fruits
and vegetables. At the regional level, the analysis show that on average, cereal crops
contribute over three-quarters of the total crop production and the non-cereals account for the
remaining quarter (Table 1).
At the individual country levels, the composition of commodities for the food basket varies.
Cereals, account for a larger share of the food supply, ranging from as high as 98% in
Lesotho, to a nearly fifty-fifty in Malawi and Tanzania (Table 1). Subsequently, this
composition makes cereals to occupy a larger share in the FBS analysis.
Table 1: Percent Production of Cereals and Non-Cereals in Some Member States

Botswana Lesotho Malawi Tanzania Zambia RSA Region
Cereal Food Crops 83 98 57 57 90 87 79
Non-cereal Food Crops 17 2 43 43 10 13 21
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Source: Study for the Expanded Food Balance Sheets, and Various Reports on Crop Production Data
Conversely, roots and tubers, and bananas contribute a significant share of the food supply in
many countries particularly in northern SADC areas. They contribute 43% of the national
food supply for Malawi and Tanzania, respectively but a minimal 2% in Lesotho (Table 1).
Various SADC-FANR reports show that Angola, the DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania
and Zambia together produce over 33 MMT of non-cereal food crops comprising of 30 MMT
of fresh cassava, 2.3 MMT of round potatoes and 1.0 MMT of sweet potatoes, respectively.
Beans including assorted pulses and oil crops are also produced in most SADC countries and
are regularly consumed. They provide substantial amounts of plant proteins, fats as well as
carbohydrates.
Given a wider range of food crops produced (both cereals and non-cereals) in SADC
countries; there is need for first determining the contribution of each crop (cereal and non-
cereal) in the overall national food basket and FBS; and second, conducting further analyses
(including studies) for disaggregating the crop production data by geographical areas. For
example, Table 2 shows the percent of food production contributed by each crop in Tanzania.
This analysis is of significant importance because the contribution of non-cereals in FBS is
often ignored. From such analysis, important crops for FBS can be determined.
14
Table 2: Average Percent of Food Production by Crop in Tanzania

Crop Percent
Maize 33
Cassava 21
Bananas/Plantains 10
Sorghum 10
Rice 9
Pulses 5
Sweet and Round Potatoes 5
Millet 4
Wheat 1
Source of Data: Adapted from FEWS NET, Tanzania
Recommendation:
The FSU/NEWUs should collect data on all food crops and conduct analyses to determine
the contribution of each food crop in the national food supply. From this analysis,
determine those crops to be included in the FBS. Action by SADC-FANR and National
FSUs/EWUs.
2.2.2 Reliability of Crop Production Data and Strategies for Improvement

Cereal Crops
Different methodological innovations for improving the validity and reliability of data on
food commodities have been developed for cereal crops. For example, for more than 30
years, FAO has successfully led discussions, developed guidelines and built capacities on
procedures and methodologies for area and yield estimations for different crops, and within
acceptable degrees of reliability. These methodological advances are documented in various
FAO publications such as the Economic and Social Development Paper No. 22 of 1982; and
the 2001 FAO Handbook for the Preparation of Food Balance Sheets. If adhered to, data
generated from these methodologies can be reliable.
Other new methods being developed to improve the reliability of cereal crop yield and
production estimation include those using models, which dependent on the water balance and
satellite-based approaches. The first model produces the water requirements satisfaction
index (WRSI), which through the process, the WRSI index is related to yield, either by
regressing with historical yield statistics, or through the incorporation of yield potential for a
specified area. The second model uses satellite-measured vegetation indices (NDVI) to
determine the vigour and health of vegetation, which are good predictors of crop production.
Details of these advances can be obtained from the SADC-Remote Sensing Unit and
USGS/FEWS NET. These attempts can be used to compare and test the reliability of data
collected by other conventional methodologies. However, run-up studies are needed to
continue the process of verifying the reliability of established methods considering that
collecting reliable statistics using conventional methods is weakened by many technical and
financial constraints.
Recommendation:
Carryout meta-analysis and conduct reliability tests on generated data for cereal crops
using software tools such regression analyses with the support of statistical packages such
SPSS and compare results with thresholds. Action by SADC-FANR and national
FSU/EWUs.
15
Non-cereal Crops
So far, there have been less technical guidelines on how to estimate yield and production for
non-cereal crops including those crops produced under mixed farming systems. The FAO
Experts Consultation Workshop on Root Crops Statistics held in Harare, Zimbabwe in
December 2002 is one of the recent innovations for providing guidelines and methodologies
for estimating the production of root crops and tubers. Similarly, SADC Member States are
on their own or with support from SADC-FANR, developing strategies to improve the
collection and quality of commodity statistics. For example, in Malawi, the Food Security
Unit FSU/NEWU uses the process of conducting three surveys (rounds) annually to estimate
crop production on top of the methodologies developed with the FAO support in the early
1990s. These processes are conducted for both cereal and non-cereal crops. The three rounds
are as follows.
• In the first round, responsible technical teams capture the intentions of farmers for the
coming season, estimate input requirements, and assess weather conditions in the country
and their potential impact on the coming agricultural season. These assessments are then
compared with previous seasons.
• Round two is conducted during the crop growth stages and involves field verifications on
the implementation of targets set, assessing the status of crops, reviewing the performance
of the weather and conducting preliminary production estimates for preparing FBS.
• The third and final round is done during the harvest period. Teams make final crop
estimates and proceed to develop a national FBS. This is later followed by the NVAC
conducting food security and vulnerability assessments in the food insecure hot spots to
determine the magnitude of stress, the results of which are used for recommending
appropriate responses.
Other suggestions for estimating the production of those crops such as cassava, which are
continuously planted during the year and which of part of it, is harvested and another part is
kept as reserve to the next season include establishing an understanding and intelligent guess
on farming practices. For example, in Malawi, the FSU/NEWU has estimated that 25% of
cassava constitutes carryover to the next season. Reliability can be established from
continuously collecting and testing results using this methodology.
Secondly, an assumption could be established that since most of crops like cassava and
potatoes are harvested and some of them consumed on wet weight bases, they could be
converted into standard units, which involve subtracting the waste and if need be converting
the remaining quantity of the crops into dry weight. A possible supposition is that about 35%
of the harvested cassava and potatoes is estimated to be waste and another 30% is the
moisture content. Using these estimates, permit calculating the quantities harvested and
potentially available food for consumption in a particular season. The following example in
BOX 1 illustrates.
BOX 1:
1. Assuming a potential harvest of cassava of 1,000,000 MT and 25% of it is carried over to the next
season. Therefore, the estimated harvest of cassava in the current season is 750,000 MT (1,000,000 MT
times 75%).
2. If 35% of the estimated harvest is waste, then the available quantity for consumption in wet weight is
487,500 MT (750,000 MT times 65% MT).
3. If 70% of the wet weight is equivalent to dry weight, then the available quantity for consumption in dry
weight is 341,000 MT (487,500 times 70%). This will be the quantity available for consumption and for
the FBS calculations.
16
Although the reliability of the data generated from these processes has not been empirically
verified, they provide a benchmark for starting procedures to test their accuracy in estimating
production. When these processes are tested and refined overtime, establishing an acceptable
degree of reliability of the methodology is possible.
Recommendations:
• Introduce methodologies for estimating the non-cereal crops such as those discussed
above in member states and agree on the ratios. Conduct studies and trend analysis of
the harvests and refine the process for at least five consecutive production seasons to
establish production trends for each crop. Test the results for consistency using
software programs such as regression analyses using SPSS and continue refining the
process to desired levels. Action by SADC-FANR and national FSU/EWUs.
• Seek technical assistance and capacity building from FAO to develop methodologies
for estimating yields and production of roots and tubers as well as for those crops
grown under the mixed farming systems. Action by SADC-FANR.
• Integrate activities with the national food consumption surveys and VACs activities to
establish distributions of food supply as well as vulnerability and changes in eating
habits at different times of the year. Action by SADC-FANR and national FSU/EWUs.
2.3 Livestock Production and Reliability of Data

2.3.1 Livestock Products and Utilization
In SADC countries, livestock products contribute significantly to the dietary needs. For
example, annual estimates of food products originating from livestock include more than 1.3-
1.5 MMT of beef, 4.5-5.6 MMT of milk, 6.6 MMT chicken, 0.6 MMT of eggs and 0.6 MMT
of pork (SADC-FANR, 2005). In 2004, the average per person annual consumption of milk
and eggs was estimated at 22.5 litres and 60 eggs, respectively (Table 3).
Table 3: Livestock Products from SADC Member States in 2004 (MT)
Mutton Pig/Pork
Beef Goat Meat Chicken Meat Milk Eggs
Lamb Meat
Angola 85,000 1,260 9,225 7,740 27,885 195,000 4,300
Botswana 30,000 2,100 6,060 9,360 375 105,350 3,000
DRC 12,623 2,775 18,471 10,604 23,810 5,000 6,000
Lesotho 8,710 3,100 1,935 1,800 2,775 23,700 1,512
Malawi 15,990 402 6,012 15,280 21000 35,000 19,500
Mauritius 500 32 200 28,720 825 4,000 5,200
Mozambique 38,100 768 1,944 39,600 12840 68,756 14,000
Namibia 60,840 9,000 4,440 3,640 577 105,000 2,465
South Africa 589,760 108,000 36,000 972,600 123460 2,552,000 339,440
Swaziland 12,500 130 2,880 5,000 1133 37,500 1,050
Tanzania 246,330 10,320 30,600 44,000 13280 935,000 35,445
Zambia 40,800 546 4,728 36,500 11000 64,200 46,400
Zimbabwe 102,375 616 12,720 35,650 26950 280,000 22,000
Total 1,243,528 139,049 135,215 1,210,494 265,910 4,410,506 500,312
Source: Adapted from the SADC-FANR, 2005 Progress Report
17
2.3.2 Reliability of Livestock Production Data and Strategies for Improvement

Data and information on livestock production from most countries are not readily available
and some lack reliability, particularly the off-take and values. Because information is
collected from different sources, reliability of the source and the information itself are critical
for the FBS analyses. This study conducted a qualitative assessment of the reliability of data
but a robust analysis is required to establish sound reliability coefficients. In South Africa, for
example, this study ascertained that while the Ministry of Agriculture provides estimates on
livestock population and products, the reliability of the process was assessed to be low.
In individual countries, various means are being used to collect data on livestock products.
Large-scale sources include slaughters in public and industrial abattoirs, meat processing
plants, deliveries to dairy plants and large-scale poultry farms. Source of data on small-scale
operations include administrative records on butcheries, on-farm slaughters and milk vendors.
Estimating the unrecorded smallholder production and utilization of livestock products such
as milk could be obtained from the status quo on the consumption patterns, experience and
assumptions on the livelihood systems, for example, of pastoralists. BOX 2 illustrates a
process for estimating smallholder milk production in a livestock depended livelihood
system. However, national food consumption surveys will be needed to establish the
distribution of food supply as well as changes in eating habits at different times of the year.
BOX 2:
1. Assuming a conservative figure that in a year and from a livestock herd size of 100 traditional cattle,
20% would be lactating another 30% would be in-calf and the remaining 50% would be composed of
other animals such as calves, heifers bulls/steers and culls.
2. Assuming a yield of 0.5 litres of milk per cow per day, the 20 cows will produce 10 litres of milk per
day.
3. With the population of cattle known and using these assumptions on milk production, rough estimates
of milk production in a country could be obtained. Other livestock products could be estimated using
similar procedures.
These procedures provide a manifesto for estimating livestock production although their
reliability requires empirical verification. Through testing and refining these procedures
overtime, reliability of the methodology can be established.
Therefore, livestock production and development institutions have in this respect, to play a
more proactive role in researching and capturing data on livestock products from the existing
administrative as well as other public administration records. The existing extension systems
in the Ministries of Agriculture and Livestock are a good avenue for collecting these data and
should be consulted and involved.
At the regional level, there is need for reviewing the livestock information system in the
SADC-FANR Directorate for enhancing strategies (including studies) for the development of
databases on livestock production and estimating the population that depend on those
particular commodities, which would eventually facilitate national and sub-national analysis
and contribute objectively to the preparation of national and regional FBS. The already
established initiatives through the financial agreement between the European Union (EU) and
SADC for the Promotion of Regional Integration in the SADC Livestock Sector (PRINT) is
among other things, expected to improve access and reliability of livestock data, information
and marketing as well as the utilization of livestock products in the Member States. The
interventions would also enhance and strengthen the developments of the livestock
production and utilization of databases subsequently providing required data for FBS.
18
Recommendations:
• Through the PRINT project conduct professional seminars/workshops in Member
States to introduce methodologies like those suggested above and discuss them to
establish percentages or ratios to use. Conduct studies and trend analyses on the agreed
processes and refine the processes for at least five consecutive years to establish a
reasonable database. Build needed capacities in Member States to carryout these
functions. Test the results for consistency using software programs such as SPSS.
Action by SADC-FANR, PRINT and National FSU/EWUs.
• The PRINT project and relevant institutions in Member States should conduct research
and capture data on livestock products from their respective areas of operations as well
as from the existing administrative and other public administration records.
• Integrate these activities with the national food consumption surveys and VACs
activities to establish distributions of the supply of livestock products and their
utilization together with vulnerability assessments and changes in eating habits at
different times of the year. Action by SADC-FANR and national FSU/EWUs.
2.4 Fisheries Production and Reliability of Data

2.4.1 Fisheries Products and Utilization
The requested data and information on fisheries production and utilization were not captured
during this study because most Member States did not respond to the questionnaires. Those
who responded, acknowledge the lack of data to be the major problem. For example, the
Ministry of Fisheries in Malawi could only provide estimates on ornamental fish and
aquarium trade although the analysis of the data from the survey questionnaire shows that
12.3% of the national population depend on fish for their livelihoods. The major constraint
was explained to be the lack of mechanisms as well as resources for monitoring trends in
fisheries production, consumption and marketing.
However, estimated statistics from the SADC-FANR report on fisheries production in 2000
indicates that 168,000 MT and 1.6 MMT of artisanal and marine fish respectively were
harvested (Table 4).
Table 4: Artisanal and Industrial Catches in SADC Countries (MT)
Table 4a: Artisanal Table 4b: Industrial
Country 1998 1999 2000 Country 1998 1999 2000
Angola 24,531 30,954 39,800 Angola 178,397 161,064 222,591
DR Congo na DR Congo 6,000
Mauritius 3,709 3,705 3,840 Mauritius 7,501 7,226 5,483
Mozambique 80,000 70,000 70,000 Mozambique 36,627 29,954 30,632
Namibia 0 0 na Namibia 605,656 577,838 623,786
Seychelles 3,300 4,842 4,723 Seychelles 20,534 28,383 27,686
South Africa na South Africa 610,000 594,741 680,000
Tanzania 46,666 48,702 49,900 Tanzania 1,533 1,297 1,868

TOTAL 156,782 168,198 168,263 TOTAL 1,460,248 1,400,503 1,598,046
Source: Adapted from SADC-FANR, Marine Fisheries and Resources Sector Progress Report, 2002
19
2.4.2 Reliability of Fisheries Production Data and Strategies for Improvement

Even with the availability of these statistics, the needed data for developing fisheries
production databases are reported to be not forthcoming on regular basis from Member States
to the SADC-FANR Directorate. According to the literature, the fundamental limitations to
obtain reliable data include inadequate policies for effective management of the data on the
fisheries outputs.
Collecting data on fisheries products is possible through collaborating with the Ministries of
Fisheries in Member States. Sources of data on fisheries products include ministerial
estimates, large-scale commercial and administrative records, NGOs, fisher-folks themselves
and vendors. What is needed is to identify the various institutions engaged in fisheries
production and to establish mechanisms to collect those data. On the consumption of fisheries
products, there is need to network with relevant national institutions such as the Ministry of
Health to conduct food consumption surveys to establish national distributions of food supply
together with the availability of fisheries products during different times of the year.
Recommendations:
• In order to improve the flow of data, it is suggested to strengthen the role of the SADC-
FANR Regional Fisheries Information Systems (RFIS), which is responsible for
fisheries information management and integration. There is need for RFIS to devise
strategies (including studies and capacity enhancements) for collecting data and
producing databases on fisheries production and estimating the population in Member
States that depend on them, which would facilitate analysis and contribution of
information in FBS. Action by SADC-FANR, RFSI .
• Integrate these activities with the national food consumption surveys and VACs
activities to establish distributions of the supply of fisheries products together with
vulnerability assessments as well as changes in eating habits at different times of the
year. Action by SADC-FANR, RFSI and FSU/EWUs .
20
3 PLANNING FOR THE EXPANDED FOOD BALANCE SHEETS
3.1 Current Procedures for Preparing Food Balance Sheets in Member States
Preparations of FBS follow the standard, format which was developed by SADC in
collaboration with FAO but with some modifications. This format is presented in Table 5.
Table 5: Standard Format for SADC Food Balance Sheets
For most countries, the analyses of FBS are limited to cereal food commodities and
Domestic Availability especially maize. When other food
Opening Stocks commodities are included in the FBS, they
- Monitored (e.g. formal-grain reserve) are calculated in terms of their equivalences
- Unmonitored (e.g. on farm, other) to maize. The maize crop has been taken as a
Gross Harvests predetermined base commodity to which
other food commodities are referenced.
Domestic Requirements
Food Use For example, the FBS for Malawi also
Feed Use includes cassava but together with rice,
Other Uses and Losses sorghum and millets are calculated in terms
of the extent they can substitute maize. The
Desired Monitored Stocks FBS for Tanzania incorporates cereals and
non-cereals but again those beans, cassava
Domestic Shortfall/Surplus and potatoes are regarded as cross substitutes
to maize. South Africa is currently the only
Net Imports country in the region that attempts to include
Imports most of the grown crops in the country, that
- Commercial
is, cereals (maize, sorghum and wheat), non-
- Food Aid
cereals (beans, groundnuts, potatoes,
Exports
vegetables and fruits) and animal products
Import Gap (meats, milk and eggs). Therefore, South
Africa provides useful important lessons on
Closing Stocks the possibilities of preparing FBS, which
includes different food commodities. There
Current Stocks is need for involving their experience in the
Source: Adapted from Technical Handbook for Food discussions and preparations for the
Balance Sheet, Vol. I (Rook, 2004) expanded FBS.
3.2 Procedures for Expanding Food Balance Sheets

In principle, the final product of the expended FBS should maintain the standard format
provided in Table 5. However, for the purpose of describing the processes involved in
preparing the expanded FBS, there is need for including details in the calculation of FBS. The
following steps are suggested.
3.2.1 Prepare Data for Food Balance Sheets
a) Obtain the quantities in MT of each commodity available for consumption and to be used
in the FBS analyses, that is, food crops, livestock and fisheries products, and other food
items. These data are obtained from the standard FSUs/NEWUs processes in Member
States. For example, Table 7 summarizes various food commodities harvested during the
2000/01 production year in Tanzania. Table 6 indicates calculations used to obtain
21
available food for consumption, which was used in the computation of the FBS in
2001/02 market year. The livestock originating products have been added in this report
and certain assumptions on seed, feed and trade made especially from literature. They
were not included in the FBS for the 2001/02 market for Tanzania.
Table 6: Example – Calculations used to Obtain Available Food for Consumption in the
2001/02 Market Year in Tanzania
BOX: 3 Key to Table 6

1 = Estimated percent of seeds, feeds and losses in Columns (D, E and F) from total production
2 = Estimated percent of exports (informal and formal) from the total production
3 = Whole grain
4 = Paddy converted to rice at 65 percent
5 = Based on dry weight - converted to dry weight = production less (15% waste plus 60% water content)
6 = Kcal based on wet weight because that is what is cooked less 33% waste
7 = Includes all varieties of beans
8 = Peas and all other legumes produced for human consumption
9 = Estimated from butcheries, abattoirs and on-farm slaughters excluding offals
10 = Whole cow milk estimated from gross production in dairy farms and smallholder producers excluding milk sucked
by calves
11 = Total or gross production from commercial and smallholder/traditional producers
12 = 100% of inland and 10% of marine fisheries products and are included (10% of inland fish is exported)
Source: Adapted from Various Sources in Tanzania
22
Table 7: Example – Tanzania Food Commodities Production in 2000/01
b) Obtain from the FAO (2001) Handbook or any other reference the food composition of
food commodities to be used in FBS. Different series of the FAO Handbooks offer
practical and straightforward examples for detailed and standardized procedures and
formats for calculating caloric values of different food commodities, and for preparations
of FBS. Those FAO Handbooks describe the composition of most available food
commodities, which are internationally recognized. This report has simply put together
from the 2001 FAO Handbook, and in raw form, the food commodities, which are
produced in the SADC Member States (Table 8). The amounts have been multiplied by
10 to provide the equivalent of one kilogram (1,000 grams).
23
Table 8: Composition of Major Food Commodities in SADC Countries in One

Kilogram (1,000 Grams)
Source: Adapted from FAO, 2001: Food Balance Sheets
24
3.2.2 Use Established and Agreed Nutritional Requirements

For this study, it has been
assumed that in order to BOX 4: Assumptions on Nutritional Requirements
maintain a normal and 1 (one) gram of Carbohydrates = 4 KCal
healthy life, a daily dietary 1 (one) gram of Proteins = 4 KCal
intake of 2,100 KCal (or 1 (one) gram of Fat = 9 KCal
525 grams of Assuming a daily requirement of 2,100 KCal plus 15% and
carbohydrates) as well as 25% (of 2,100) of proteins and fats, respectively.
79 grams of proteins and
58 grams of fats is needed A. Therefore, 100% of Carbohydrates
per person per day. In total for a 2,100 KCal diet = 100 x 2,100 = 525 grams
approximately 663 grams 4
The 525 grams of carbohydrates includes fruits and vegetable.
of food composed of (525g
of carbohydrate plus 79g of B. Therefore, 15% of Proteins
proteins and 59g of fats) for a 2,100 KCal diet = 0.15 x 2,100 = 79 grams
4
are needed each day to C. Therefore, 25% of Fat
satisfy the proposed dietary for a 2,100 KCal diet = 0.25 x 2,100 = 59 grams
needs (see BOX 4). These 9
amounts provide These amounts provide 663 grams of food for 2,947 KCal per
possibilities for calculating person per day.
the amounts required by
each food item to satisfy the proposed dietary requirements.
3.2.3 Convert Food Commodities into their Nutrient Compositions
All food commodities to be used in the FBS should be converted into their food
compositions, which are carbohydrates, proteins and fats instead of converting them to the
equivalent of a predetermined base commodity such as maize or cereals. The practice in
Member States has been to use the so called base commodity, which in principle is a
dominant food item in the FBS. In this case, maize/cereals have always been regarded as
dominant food items, and therefore considered as base commodities.
Consequently, the term maize or cereal equivalence has been interpreted differently by
different populations in SADC countries. First maize or cereals have been misunderstood to
constitute the only source of caloric requirements subsequently used exclusively in the FBS
analyses. Second, even if maize or cereals are regarded as major food, the reality is that they
are not on their own able to provide the needed dietary requirements for a normal life.
Using the maize equivalent (3,560 KCal), it is possible to obtain the desired energy
requirements such as 2,100 KCal per person per day. This would approximate 0.59
kilograms of maize per day. Although this amount would satisfy the energy needs, it can
only provide about 47 grams of proteins (0.59 x 79 divide by 1,000) instead of the
required 15% or79 grams. The same quantity can supply only 35 grams of fats (0.59 x 59
divide by 1,000) instead of the required 25% of 59 grams. Consequently, the dietary needs
are not adequately met.
Converting each food commodity into its nutritive values independent of any other
commodity provides an objective verification of moving away from the myth of a dominant
and base commodity. The steps include:
25
a) Document the nutrient components, that is, carbohydrates, proteins and fats for the food
commodities available for FBS. These are presented in Table 9. The food commodities
available for consumption are the same as those presented in the last column in Table 7.
Table 9: Example – Tanzania: Food Composition of Commodities Produced in 2000/01
b) Calculate the protein and fats components for each available food commodity. The data
are obtained by multiplying the food available for consumption by corresponding
compositions of proteins and fats and converting to metric tons. Finally, total
carbohydrates are obtained by subtracting the total available proteins and fats from the
total food available for consumption. Those amounts are illustrated in Table 9.
3.2.4 Convert Food Commodities into their Nutrient Compositions and Calculate
Food Needs Met
Calculate dietary needs per person per day and for the total population of a country or
location. Instead of calculating the full caloric needs or 100% of the 2,100 KCal per person
per day from cereals only or any food commodity, the requirements presented in BOX 4
above, that is, 525 grams of carbohydrates, 79 grams of proteins and 58 grams of fats are
used. BOX 5 provides guidelines for calculating dietary needs.
26
BOX 5:
1. Calculate the food available for consumption for each commodity after subtracting all other uses
(see column 1 in Tables 7 and 9 in this report).
2. Determine the total carbohydrates (CHO), proteins and fats contents available for each commodity
by multiplying the available food in MT by the standards developed by FAO.
3. Calculate the food needs of the population per day based on 2,100 KCal by multiplying the
corresponding standard for each content (CHO = 525g, proteins=79g and fats=58g) with the
population. Food needs per month and for the year are calculated by multiplying the daily needs by
30 and 365 days, respectively.
4. Divide the food available for consumption (column 1, Table 10) by food needs per day (column 2,
Table 10) to determine the number of months in a year the total food can supply, and
corresponding months for each commodity. Less than 12 months indicates that there is a shortage
of that commodity. The shortfall can be quantified
In addition, BOX 6 provides critical assumptions, which are needed for calculating food
needs from combining different food commodities. From these assumptions, calculating food
needs met becomes possible as illustrated in Table 10. In 2000, the population in Tanzania
was estimated at 32.6 million people.
BOX 6: Assumptions for Calculating Food Needs
Assumption 1: National Population in 2000 =32,637,206
Assumption 2: Production equals food available for consumption after subtracting all other uses
including exports
Assumption 3: The caloric needs per person per day is 2,100 KCal plus 79 grams protein and
59 grams fats
Total caloric needed per person per day = (KCal 2,100/4) = 525 grams
For 32,637,206 people, the total needs per day = (32,637,206 x (525/1,000,000) = 17,135 MT
Total proteins needed per person day = (KCal 2,100 x 15% divide by 4) = 79 grams
Total fats needed per day = (KCal 2,100 x 25% divide by 9) = 59 grams
Total Food Needed per day= 21,640 (17,135+2,579+1,926) MT
27
Table 10: Example – Tanzania: Food Needs Met for 2001/02 Market Year
Source: Study on the Expanded Food Balance Sheets
Note:
Months covered have been obtained by dividing food available for consumption by food needs per month.
Percent of food needs met has been obtained by from dividing food available for consumption by food needs
per year multiplying by 100.
KCal met has been obtained from multiplying percent of food needs met by 2,947 and dividing by 100.
These examples illustrate the possibilities for combining all food commodities in FBS
analysis to determine the number of days or months in a year they contribute to the nutritional
requirements. With these calculations, the FBS would be able to show the total food available
and even identify those food items, which are in short supply.
Food production in Tanzania in 2000/01 agricultural season was mediocre affected by poor
rainfall performance during the growing season. Consequently, none of the food items was on
its own able to provide the needed quantities and the dietary requirements. Even the
combination of food crops such as cereals and non-cereals did not on their own, meet the
food needs. All cereals, non-cereals and animal products, could only meet about 37%, 61%
and 13% of the national food needs, respectively.
However, the combination of all food commodities provided 112% covering slightly above
months of the national food needs and exceeding the 2,947 KCal per person per day. With
this analysis, calculating the requirements for each of the food components is also possible. In
addition, Table 10 shows the annual dietary requirements met by each food commodity, a
combination of food groups such as cereal crops, non-cereal crops, livestock originating
products and the sum-total for all food items. However, these calculations provide a general
indication of the total food supply at the national level. At sub-national levels, there exist
significant variations in the availability of those food commodities. Therefore, detailed
vulnerability analyses are needed to determine the actual food availability and accessibility.
During the 2001/02 market year, the country declared a national food security crisis and
appealed to donors for substantial food aid mainly because there was a significant cereal
28
deficit. However, the expanded FBS, shows that the overall food supply was, in principal,
adequate for the national requirements. What was needed was for the food security
assessment teams such as NVAC and other food security networks to conduct rapid
vulnerability assessments to identify the localized food insecure populations and determine
required responses.
Using these parameters, preparing additional balance sheets for proteins and fats becomes
possible. Finally, those calculations should then be included in a broader and an all inclusive
FBS and food security analysis.
Tables 11a, 11b and 11c demonstrate possibilities of employing this approach to estimate the
individual food nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) that the available different food
commodities can meet in a year. From those Tables, it is evident that the available food
compositions in the 2000/01 production year were heavy on carbohydrates but were in very
short supply of proteins and fats. However, none of the food commodities nor a combination
of food groups that is, cereals, non-cereals and animal products was able on its own to satisfy
the dietary needs for carbohydrates, proteins and fats for the 2001/02 market year.
Whereas there was an abundant availability of 15 months of the sum total of carbohydrates
foods and that they exceed dietary requirements of 2,100 KCal per person per day,
availability of the sum total of proteins and fats were only sufficient for nine and seven
months, respectively. Moreover, only 70% and 57% of the proteins and fats requirements,
respectively were met. Both proteins and fats foods fell short of requirements, that is 55
grams instead of 79 grams for proteins and 34 grams instead of 59 grams for fats per person
per day. Critical thoughts for mitigation should have also paid attention to proteins and fats
supplements.
Table 11a: Example - Calculating Carbohydrate Food Needs Met from the 2000/01
Production Year in Tanzania
29
Table 11b: Example - Calculating Protein Food Needs Met from the 2000/01 Production
Year in Tanzania
Table 11c: Example - Calculating Fats Food Needs Met from the 2000/01 Production
Year in Tanzania
30
3.2.5 Preparing the Expanded Food Balance Sheets

Frome the processes described in the previous sections, Table 12 illustrates the product from
the expanded FBS. However, issues of imports, food aid and stocks have not been dealt with
in this activity because their actual data during the 2001/02 in Tanzania were not available
when this report was being written.
It is evident from Table 12 that there is a potential surplus of 0.91 MMT of the sum total of
all food commodities but most of it is from carbohydrates. Therefore, whereas there is
potential surplus of carbohydrates of nearly 1.5 MMT, there are structural significant
shortfalls of 0.285 MMT of protein and 0.298 MMT of fats foods, respectively. Therefore,
plans to import or supplement food items should have paid attention to bridging the deficit of
proteins and fats foods as well.
Recommendation:
After the FBS are prepared there is need for conducting vulnerability assessments to
establish distributions of the food supply at different times of the year and to identify the
localized food insecure and vulnerable groups of populations and recommend appropriate
responses. Action by SADC-FANR and FSU/EWUs .
31
Table 12: Example – Expanded Food Balance Sheet for Tanzania for 2001/02 Market Year
32
While carrying out this technical task of formulating expanded FBS would not be much of a
challenge to food security professionals, the major test is whether there are enough and
reliable data to warrant the analyses and if the current institutional environment will be ready
and willing to accept the new approach. These challenges are discussed in the following
section.
3.3 Issues Influencing the Expanded Food Balance Sheets in Member States
This section focuses on the issues, which influence the accuracy of FBS and perceptions
surrounding their utilization in SADC countries. This is because of the belief and reality that
the validity and reliability of data are a prerequisite for preparing sound FBS. Suggestions for
improvements are also provided.
A requisite for sound FBS is that they need be accurate in order to provided reliable
information on the food supply situation of a country for a specified period. Therefore, the
data that go into the computation of FBS should be accessible in addition to having an
acceptable level of reliability. These influencing factors are discussed below.
3.3.1 Methodologies for Improved Accuracy and Reliability of Data
As discussed in previous sections of this report, strong methodological innovations to
improve the accuracy and reliability of data have been developed for cereal crops compared
with those for non-cereal crops. However, those advances including maintaining the
reliability of the technologies developed by FAO are in danger of being eroded because they
are undermined by financial, technical and managerial constraints. A solemn drawback is the
high turnover of experienced technical staff for commodity estimation, exacerbated by
limited opportunities to replace them. This is compounded by budgetary constraints at the
regional and national levels, which hinder retention of those capacities in countries and the
region. In addition, the regional and national EWUs fail to enhance capacities needed to carry
out accurate commodity estimations because of lack of adequate funds. Consequently, the
technically sensitive tasks are either left to be conducted by a few and/or by inexperienced
staff, often resulting in incompleteness, delays and errors in the collected data, which
confound their reliability. Moreover, methodologies for estimating production from roots and
tubers, livestock and fisheries are still weak and require strengthening.
Positively, however, there have been renewed efforts to improve investments in agriculture in
the region notably, the 2003 Maputo Declaration by the SADC Summit requiring Member
States Governments to increase their annual national budgetary allocation for agriculture to at
least 10%. Furthermore, Declarations of the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic
Development Plan (RISDP) and the 2004 Dar-es-Salaam Extra-Ordinary Summit on
Agriculture and Food Security reaffirms this commitment. It is perceived that the increase in
the funding for agriculture would trickle-down to support the improvements of different food
security activities including revitalizing methodologies for food commodity estimations with
special attention to roots and tubers. There is need for SADC-FANR to strengthen the already
developed tracking system to ensure satisfactory implementation of those Declarations.
3.3.2 Integrating Food Balance Sheets in the Broader Food Security Analyses
Food balance sheets are not an early warning monitoring tool. However, they play a primary
function of indicating after current harvests, the food supply situation of a country until the
next major harvests. In this context, they become a food supply early warning indicator for
the coming consumption year (market year). As argued in various literatures, FBS provide
the food availability component. They do not indicate how other components of food security
33
will be affected. To add value, there is need for integrating FBS into the broader food security
and nutritional analyses models.
In 1996, the World Food Summit (WFS) adopted the basic food security model comprising of
four main pillars of food security, that is, food availability, access, utilization and stability.
However, the need to expand early warning activities from food availability to incorporate
other food security components is not new. It first evolved from the publication by Sen
(1981), which widened the scope of food security information analysis to include access
issues. Subsequently, the SADC food security programme was revised in 1987 to include
access issues particularly for the vulnerable groups. However, it was in 1999 when the role of
the National Early Warning Units (NEWUs) in SADC formally expanded the analysis to
include issues of food access. The establishment of the Regional Vulnerability Assessment
Committee (RVAC) and corresponding National Vulnerability Assessment Committees
(NVACs) broadened the analytical framework to strengthen food security and vulnerability
analyses under the umbrella of the livelihood systems approach. The VACs constitute a
conceptual model to which different levels of analyses from national to sub-national
including community and households are possible.
Preparation of formal FBS is most useful at the national level because it summarizes the
national food supply and demand, used by the government to develop relevant food security
policies and decisions for that particular year, as well as for the future development
programmes. Internally, a sub-national (mainly at the provincial/regional, district or
community level) food needs analysis, if done, can facilitate objective understanding of food
availability and needs for those food commodities commonly produced in those locations.
However, one of the limitations in sub-national analyses is the difficult to determine imports
and exports because it would not be easy to establish and distinguish movements of food
from one location to another within the country from those commodities that cross the
province or district borders.
Therefore, after completing the national FBS together with concurrent analysis of early
warning monitoring indicators, the VACs, utilizing the livelihoods’ systems framework
should conduct food security and vulnerability assessments, as well as nutritional assessments
to determine the magnitude of the stress in the identified food insecure hot spots. To achieve
this goal, there is need for increasing investments in the livelihoods systems analysis and
capacity building in order to add value to the usefulness of FBS.
3.3.3 Independence of Technical Analysis
Producing accurate and reliable data goes a long way towards assuring the value of preparing
sound FBS but the process through which data are produced and vetted by governments and
partners plays a critical role in influencing consensus in decision-making. Since NEWUs are
legal national institutions and NVACs collaborate with networks to conduct food security and
vulnerability assessments, the requirement of “official data” should principally be satisfied.
Additionally, since food security and vulnerability assessments involve multi-sectoral
networks, the credibility of the results is assured because they establish ownership of the
process, output and recommendations. Therefore, food security data and information
submitted to SADC should not be subjected to the requirement of going through the
government scrutiny before release—the process, which delays early warning information
delivery and is highly susceptible to data abuse.
The current RVACs and NVACs should be strengthened and expanded to conduct series of at
least four national and regional meetings. Before each meeting, the NVACs would have
conducted similar activities in their respective countries. A similar approach has been
34
successful elsewhere such as in the Sahelian Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought
Control (CILSS) in West Africa. These four meetings would be:
• The first forum is the pre-agricultural season conducted before the onset of the season.
The forum assesses the national production projections, which are used to estimate
needed production inputs, assess the input supply and compare them with the previous
season, and make appropriate recommendations. In addition, the forum assesses the
weather conditions and their impact on production. Problems affecting the performance of
the season are discussed and remedial strategies sought.
• The second forum is conducted during land preparation and planting to review the
implementation of recommendations made in the first forum and to ensure adequate and
timely availability of inputs. Implementation follow-ups are conducted during this phase.
• The third forum involves presentations and reviews of the pre-harvest assessment results
and preliminary food production forecast to provide prognosis of food security in the
member states. During this meeting NEWUs submit and present preliminary forecasts and
implementation constraints in the respective countries. The reports are discussed and
possible solutions identified.
• The fourth and final forum involves presentations of harvest assessments by all member
states. The data are discussed together with the access and utilization issues. They derive
into preparing FBS, determining food needs and developing a consolidated region wide
appeal for relief assistance, if any. Thereafter, a designated SADC-FANR committee or
task force makes follow-up meetings and consultations with donors and stakeholders to
ensure implementation of the recommendations and commitments made.
3.3.4 Definition of Food
Although FBS partly reveal how the food supply adequately meets the nutritional
requirements of a country, and that should principally derive from all available foods, the
food preferences and eating habits of different populations appear to influence the
commodities to be included in the food balance analyses. The stereotype that cereals and
especially maize is “the food” is strong among policy makers in most SADC countries. Other
important foods, which are consumed as relish such as beans, fish meats and vegetables, or
consumed at breakfast such as cassava, potatoes and milk, or just eaten as snacks between
meals like fruits and chips are disregarded in the composition of FBS; and therefore, their
nutritive values not determined and included. In some countries, these strong policy
orientations have been criticizing and even demanding removing most other food
commodities from the computation of FBS. In spite of the fact that people’s food
consumption preferences are essential when considering the “utilization” aspect in an
integrated food security analysis, it is absolutely essential to come up with a basket of
important food commodities, particularly those locally produced for including in the
expanded FBS analysis. This basket should identify and include the primary (staple) and
supplementary food commodities. Such analysis becomes even more important at sub-
national level because it facilitates determining the supply level of food commodities that
matter most in those locations.
This requirement of a common food basket creates yet a different intervention dimension at
both national and regional levels. While the technical analysis within the national and
regional EWUs and food security units to develop a standard food basket is straight forward,
that of influencing policy makers and other stakeholders on the composition of the expanded
FBS requires strong advocacy and sensitization. Some of these interventions would require
subjecting the presentations of the innovations for expanding FBS through similar processes
of SADC Member States protocols for the Summits and issuing Declarations. A Declaration
35
on a common definition of “food” might be essential. Discussions with different

professionals in the region during this study, perceive this approach to be the best practical
way for creating awareness and approval at the higher national and regional policy-making
levels.
3.3.5 Definition of Food Balance Sheets
Alongside the definition of “food”, the purposes to which FBS are prepared need revisiting.
SADC defines food security as “sustainable access to safe and adequate food at all times and
by all people for an active and health life”. Therefore, in order to achieve an active and health
life, people need a good diet composed of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, as well as vitamins
and essential minerals. If there is agreement that FBS determine both the national food supply
situation and ability to meet the nutritional requirements of the people, then the analyses of
FBS need to reflect that understanding. As previously indicated, the there is need for
establishing nutritional daily requirements to provide needed energy as well as proteins and
fats.
FBS analyses that include all available food items satisfy this composition as well as the
definition of dietary requirements. The practice of preparing FBS from cereals only implies
curbing hunger or famine as the main goal. As the consumption patterns of people change,
there is need to move away from the cereal only based FBS because already there are cases of
obesity or under-nourishment among adults in some of the SADC countries, despite some
studies reporting below standards nutritional levels.
4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
4.1 Conclusions
Several conclusions can be drawn from the salient results of the study.
1. The SADC region and Member States have for the past two decades been using the food
balance sheet approach to estimate the food supply and demand situations as well as
determining the food security situations in the region and respective countries. All
countries produce national FBS only using the standard format for SADC but with some
modifications. Whilst some of the Member States produce a yearly FBS, others go a step
further to generate more than one national product in a year mainly to facilitate periodic
monitoring of the food situation in their countries.
2. The current practice for the majority of SADC Member States is for preparing FBS
wholly from cereals although the countries produce different varieties of food crops (both
cereals and non-cereals), keep different kinds of livestock and the region is endowed with
large quantities of inland and marine fisheries. A few countries (Angola, Malawi,
Tanzania, South Africa and Zambia) have already broadened their national FBS to
include some of the non-cereal crops. Only South Africa has gone to the extent of
including livestock products, fruits and vegetables in the food balance analysis. None of
the Member States is currently incorporating fish products in their FBS. In some of the
countries, the proportion between the production of cereals and non-cereals is almost
equal, particularly the northern states of SADC. Additionally, at sub-national levels, the
contributions of livestock or fisheries products in their food basket are more prominent
than crops.
3. All countries in the region are plagued with dearth of accessibility of reliability of
statistics on the production of non-cereal crops, fisheries, and livestock products
36
including the off-take and values, and the consumption of those commodities. These
constraints are blamed to be limiting the expansion of FBS beyond the current practice.
Although different methodological innovations have been developed by different
practitioners such as the FAO Statistical Division, to improve yield and production
estimates as well as reliability of cereal crops, those for capturing the production data for
non-cereals, livestock and fisheries have remained weak.
4. Other limitations identified affecting the expansion of FBS in the region and countries
include food consumption stereotypes and preferences, which put strong emphasize on
cereals and particularly maize as the only paramount food commodity as well as the
intrinsic assumptions on the classifications and composition of food commodities needed
to meet dietary requirements. Cereals have been misunderstood to constitute the entire
daily per caput dietary requirements.
4.2 Recommendations
The recommendations focus on what SADC-FANR and FSUs of Member States should be
doing differently to improve the validity and reliability of data, which are fundamental for
preparing sound expanded FBS; and for improving the utilization of those FBS once they are
produced.
1. It is recommended that SADC-FANR and Member States adopt the expanded FBS of
calculating food commodities according to the established and agreed dietary
requirements of the people in addition to the FAO established food compositions. The
examples given in the report demonstrate clearly the importance of including available
food commodities in the FBS analyses for meeting the dietary requirements for an active
and health life. Using these calculations, guarantees expanding FBS to include all
available food commodities.
2. To ensure availability and accessibility as well as reliability of the data needed for
preparing FBS, the regional and national early warning systems should consider
enhancing the needed capacities in the region and member states for carrying out those
tasks. In addition, SADC-FANR Directorate should coordinate the activities of the
established systems, which include the Agricultural Information and Management System
(AIMS), the Regional Fisheries Information Systems (RFIS) and the Promotion of
Regional Integration in the SADC Livestock Sector (PRINT) so as to enable capturing
data on non-cereals, livestock and fisheries products, comprehensively.
3. Regional and national early warning and food security systems should ensure that
generated FBS are not an end in themselves but they ought to be integrated in broader
food security and nutritional analyses (availability, access, utilization and stability) so that
the localized food insecure and vulnerable groups of populations are identified and
appropriate response decisions made. This would, in addition, take the advantage of
strengthening collaboration with the regional and national VACs together with other
existing food security networks in the region and member states.
4. The SADC-FANR and Member States need to initiate a dialogue and establish
mechanisms focused on awareness building and sensitization of those policy and
decision-makers and consumers to distinguish dietary requirements from food preferences
as well as the role of FBS in the broader context of the national or regional food security.
5. Given that all these activities require substantial financial resources, the SADC
Secretariat and Member States should consider increasing their budgetary allocations to
37
sufficient levels that would strengthen the SDAC-FANR and NEWUs and facilitate
effective implementation of these important food security issues.
38
ANNEXES
Annex 1: People Consulted
Name Institution Contacts

Bentry Chaura SADC-FANR, Agricultural Information and bchaura@sadc.int
Management System (AIMS), Gaborone, Botswana
B.F. Zimba Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security- Tel: 265 175 4389
Animal Health and Livestock Development,
Lilongwe, Malawi
Dezio A.M. Banda Fisheries Department, Lilongwe ,Malawi denzibanda@yahoo.com
Dickson Kazembe Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security- dicksonkazembe@yahoo.com
Planning Division, Lilongwe, Malawi
Evans Chapasuka Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS echapasuka@fews.net
NET), Lilongwe Malawi
Elijah Mukhala SADC-FANR, Remote Sensing Unit, Gaborone, emukhala@sadc.int
Botswana
Elliot Vhurumuku WFP/VAM, Food Security Officer, Gaborone, elliot.vhurumuku@undp.org
Botswana
Jusoh M. Mazlan FAO Representative in Malawi, Lilongwe FAO-MW@fao.org
Ms. Dorothy Nyamhanza SADC-FANR, Remote Sensing Unit, Gaborone, dnyamhanza@sadc.int
Botswana
Ms. Magret Nyirenda SADC-FANR Directorate Mnyirenda@sadc.int
Ms. Mphatso J. Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security- mphatso@africa-online.net
Nyekanyeka Planning Division, Lilongwe, Malawi
Ms. Onalenna Ntshebe Food and Nutrition Unit, Ministry of Health, onamihil@yahoo.com
Gaborone, Botswana
Ms. Sandy Davis SADC-FANR, Fisheries Advisor, Gaborone, sdavies@sadc.int
Botswana
Patrick Chikungwa Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security- dahi.cvl@malawi.net
Central Veterinary Laboratory, Lilongwe, Malawi
Richard Tendai Masundire SADC-FANR, Food Security Early Warning, rmasundire@sadc.int
Gaborone, Botswana
Sam Chimwaza Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS schimwaza@fews.net
NET), Lilongwe Malawi
Simon Mwale SADC-FANR, Crop Development, Gaborone, smwale@sadc.int
Botswana
Tamuka T. Magadzire SADC-FANR, Remote Sensing Unit, Gaborone, tmagadzire@sadc.int
Botswana
W.G Lipita Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Food Security- wglipita@hotmail.com
Animal Health and Livestock Development,
Lilongwe, Malawi
Welbourne Madzima SADC-FANR, Print Livestock Project, Gaborone, wmadzima@sadc.int
Botswana
39
Annex 2: References
FAO, 2003, Vol. II: Proceedings of the Expert Consultation on Root Crop Statistics held in
Harare, Zimbabwe – December 3-6, 2002. Statistics Division and Regional Office for Africa,
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
FAO, 2001: Food Balance Sheets – A Handbook for the Preparation of Food Balance Sheets.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome Italy.
Racionzer P., 1995: Food Balance Sheet Technical Handbook Vol III: The Annual Food
Balance Model. SADC/FAO Early Warning System, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Rook J.M., 1994: Food Balance Sheet Technical Handbook Vol I: General Guidelines.
SADC/FAO Early Warning System, Harare, Zimbabwe.
FAO, 1991: FAO Balance Sheets. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
Rome, Italy.
GIEWS, 2004, Vol. 2: Food Supply Situation and Crop Prospects in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
SADC-FANR, 2005. Progress Report for the Integrated Committee of Ministers (ICM)
Meeting held in Lesotho. SADC Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate,
Gaborone, Botswana.
SADC Secretariat, 2004. Enhancing Agriculture and Food Security for Poverty Reduction in
the SADC Region – Key Issues Paper for Extraordinary Summit held in Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania in May 2004. SADC Secretariat, Gaborone, Botswana.
SADC-Marine Fisheries Resources Sector, 2002. Marine Fisheries and Resources Sector
Progress Report. Southern African Development Community Sector Coordinating Unit,
Windhoek, Namibia.
Shohan Jeremy, 2005. Food Security Information Systems Supported by Save the Children
UK: A Review. Save the Children, London.
40
Annex 3a: Survey Questionnaire on Crop Production Utilization and Food Balance
Sheets
Planning for Expanded Food Balance Sheets for SADC – General, Crop Production and Utilization
Questionnaire for Member States
Dear…………………………………………………………
The SADC region has used the food balance sheet (FBS) approach to food security assessment since 1986
when the Regional Early Warning System was established.
However, the current analysis of the food balance sheet in the region and Member States focuses
primarily on cereal food commodities, with only a few countries including some non-cereal crops such as
cassava, plantains and sweet potatoes. Ideally, and in order to obtain a comprehensive picture of the
overall food security situation in a country/region using the food balance approach, all possible food
commodities, from whatever source, should be quantified and included in the analysis. This would mean
including in the food balance sheet all cereals, pulses, root crops, fruits, livestock products, fish and many
other food products.
While it may be impractical to include all food commodities available to people in the balance sheet, there
is, nevertheless an urgent need to expand food items in calculating food balance sheets in order adequately
analyze the food security situation in Member States and the SADC region. It has been recommended that
the food balance sheet should cover at least 75% of the calorific intake of the people in each member
state.
In order to meet this objective, we want to know how we can improve the analysis of the food balance
sheet. We can only do this if you provide us with data and information on crop production and food balance
sheet from your country. Please take the time to respond to the questions in the questionnaire below.
Please send the filled questionnaire to Mr. Bentry P. Chaura, Email: bchaura@sadc.int
1. Respondent details
Name of Country:
Ministry/Institution:
Position of person completing this questionnaire:
A. Production of Food Balance Sheets
2. Do you produce a national food balance sheet? Yes

Please mark only one. No
If the answer is “Yes” Name of institution(s) preparing FBS…………………………………………………

Year when started
Frequency (please mark one) Two or more times per year
Once per year
Once in two years
Once in three years
If the answer is “No” What are the reasons
41
3. Do you produce sub-national food balance sheets? Please mark Yes

only one. No
If the answer is “Yes” Name of institution(s) preparing FBS…………………………………………………
Year when started
Frequency (please mark one) Two or more times per year
Once per year
Once in two years
Once in three years
If the answer is “No” What are the reasons
B. Food Balance Sheet Supply Elements

Production – Food Crops
4. Which food crops are included in the Maize
FBS? (Please mark all that apply) Rice/Paddy
Sorghum
Millet
Wheat
Beans
Peas
Groundnuts
Cassava
Sweet Potatoes
Round/Irish Potatoes
Cooking Bananas (Matoke)
Other (please specify)
Production – Livestock Products

5. Which livestock products are included in Milk
the FBS? (Please mark all that apply) Meat (include beef, goat, sheep, pork)
Poultry Meat (include all edible birds)
If the answer is “None” in column 2, give Eggs (all edible eggs)
reasons in this space below. Other (please specify)
None
Production – Fish Products

6. Which fish products are included in the Inland Artisanal (Freshwater) Fish
FBS? (Please mark all that apply) Marine Artisanal Fish
If the answer is “None” in column 2, give Other (please specify)
reasons in this space below. Other (please specify)
None
42
Change in Food Stocks

7. Which stocks are included in the FBS? Monitored Opening Government Stocks
(Please mark all that apply with) Monitored Closing Government Stocks
Monitored Opening On-farm Stocks
Monitored Closing On-farm Stocks
Unmonitored Opening On-farm Stocks
Unmonitored Closing On-farm Stocks
If the answer is “None” in column 2, give Monitored Opening Commercial Stocks
reasons in this space below. Monitored Closing Commercial Stocks
Unmonitored Opening Commercial Stocks
Unmonitored Closing Commercial Stocks
None
Food Imports/Exports
8. Which data are included in the FBS? Commercial imports
(Please mark all that apply) Food Aid
If the answer is “None” in column 2, give Estimates of Unrecorded trade (cross border)
reasons in this space below. Commercial Exports
None
C. Food Balance Sheet Utilization Elements

Food Use
9. What daily calorie requirement (that is 2,100
KCal/caput/day do you use in the FBS (Please mark Less than 2,100 (write the figures )
one) More than 2,100 (write the figures)
Feed Use
10. Is feed use factored in the estimation of the FBS Yes
(Please mark one) No
Seed Use
11. Is seed use factored in the estimation of the FBS Yes
(Please mark one) No
Waste or Losses
12. Is waste of loss factored in the estimation of the Yes
FBS (Please mark one) No
D. Major Food Crops Produced in the Country

Major Cereal
13. Information on major cereal food crops produced in the country (Fill in the blanks)
2000/01 or 2001 2002/03 0r 2003 2004/05 0r 2005
Hectares Metric Hectares Metric Hectares Metric
Name of Crop
(Ha) tons (MT) (Ha) tons (MT) (Ha) tons (MT)
planted harvested planted harvested planted harvested
Maize
Paddy
Sorghum
Millet
Wheat
Other (specify)
43
Other Major Food Crops

14. Information on other major food crops produced in the country (Fill in the blanks)
2000/01 or 2001 2002/03 0r 2003 2004/05 0r 2005
Hectares Metric Hectares Metric Hectares Metric
Name of Crop
(Ha) tons (MT) (Ha) tons (MT) (Ha) tons (MT)
planted harvested planted harvested planted harvested
Beans
Peas (all peas)
Cassava
Sweet Potatoes
Round/Irish Potatoes
Other (specify)
Other (specify)
15. Are those estimates available at sub- Yes

Region/Province
national levels? No
Yes
District
No
For all crops listed above, please provide the main source(s) of data
16. Provide sources of data for food crops (tick all that apply)
Source Maize Paddy Sorghum Millet Wheat Beans Pulses Cassava S/Potato R/Potat
es oes
Ministry
Admin Records
NGOs
Commercial
FAOSTAT
Producers
Other …………….
For all crops listed above, please assess the reliability of the data
17. Assess the degree of Reliability of Data (Please mark one degree of for each crop)
Source Maize Paddy Sorghum Millet Wheat Beans Pulses Cassava S/Potat R/Potat
oes oes
Not reliable
Low reliability
Reliable
Very Reliable
Please comment
on the general
reliability of
these data
44
E. Food Crops Imports and Exports
18. Provide national estimates of food crop imports and mark all sources of information. If the information
is not available indicate “not available” in the appropriate space.
Source of Data
2000 2003 2005 Local
Fish
Type (Metric (Metric (Metric Ministry Gov Other
NGOs FAOSTAT folks or
Tons) Tons) Tons) Estimates Admin …………….
company
Records
Maize
Paddy/Rice
Sorghum
Millet
Wheat
Beans
Cassava
Other
(Specify)…………………..
19. Provide national estimates of food crop exports and mark all sources of information. If the information
Source of Data
2000 2003 2005 Local
Fish
company
Records
Maize
Paddy
Sorghum
Millet
Wheat
Beans
Cassava
Other
(Specify)…………………..
20. Assess the degree of Reliability of data on Imports (Please mark one degree of for each crop)
Source Maize Paddy/Rice Sorghum Millet Wheat Beans Cassava Other
……………..
Not reliable
Low reliability
Reliable
Very Reliable
21. Assess the degree of Reliability of data on Exports (Please mark one degree of for each crop)
Source Maize Paddy/Rice Sorghum Millet Wheat Beans Cassava Other
……………..
Not reliable
Low reliability
Reliable
Very Reliable
45
F. Improving the Data collection and reliability
22. Please provide suggestions for improving

the collection of livestock production data in
your country and SADC region.
the reliability of crop production data in your
country and SADC region.
G. Improving or Expanding the Food Balance Sheet
23. Please provide suggestions for additional

or alternative information or analyses that
you would like to see included in the expanded
Food Balance Sheet for your country?
H. Opinion about Food Balance Sheet
24. Overall, what do you perceive to be the

weaknesses of a food balance sheet?
25. Overall, how useful is the Food Balance Very useful

Sheet in supporting your decision making on Useful
food security in the country/region? Not useful
Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. Please return the completed form to Mr.
Bentry P. Chaura, Email: bchaura@sadc.int by Monday, April 24, 2006.
46
Annex 3b: Survey Questionnaire on Crop Production Utilization and Food Balance
Sheets
Planning for Expanded Food Balance Sheets for SADC – Livestock Production and Utilization
Questionnaire for Member States
Dear ………………………………………………………….,
is need to expand the composition of food items in calculating food balance sheets in order adequately
the food balance sheet should cover at least 75% of the calorific intake of the people in each Member
State.
sheet. We can only do this if you provide us with data and information on livestock production from your
country. Please take the time to respond to the questions in the questionnaire below.
Name of Country:
A. Livestock Production in the Country
2. Provide national estimates of livestock populations and mark all sources of information. If the
information is not available indicate “not available” in the appropriate space.
Source of Data
Local
2000 2003 2005
Type Ministry Gov Livestock Other
(Million) (Million) (Million) NGOs FAOSTAT
Estimates Admin Owners …………….
Records
Cattle
Goats
Sheep
Poultry
Pigs
Rabbits
Other……………….
47
3. Have the data in item 2 above obtained from From census

census or surveys or estimates? From surveys or estimates
4. If the data have been obtained from surveys or estimates, assess their degree of Reliability (Please
mark one degree of for each livestock)
Type of Livestock
Source Other
Cattle Goats Sheep Poultry Pigs Rabbits
……………….
Not reliable
Low reliability
Reliable
Very Reliable
5. Provide national estimates of livestock products and mark all sources of information. If the information
Source of Data
2000 2003 2005
Local Gov
Type (Metric (Metric (Metric Ministry Livestock Other
Admin NGOs FAOSTAT
Tons) Tons) Tons) Estimates Owners …………….
Records
Beef
Lamb (Mutton)
Goat Meat
Pork (Pig Meat)
Chicken
Milk
Eggs
Honey
Butter
Other……………………
6. Assess the degree of Reliability of the Data in item 5 (Please mark one degree of for each livestock)
Type of Livestock Product
Source Pork
Lamb Goat Other
Beef (Pig Chicken Milk Eggs Honey Butter
(Mutton) Meat ………
Meat
Not reliable
Low reliability
Reliable
Very Reliable

Region/Province
national levels? No
Yes
District
No
48
B. Population Dependent on Livestock
2000 – (Million) 2003 – (Million) 2005 – (Million)

8. Total national population
9. Population dependent on livestock
C. Imports and Exports of Livestock and their Products
10. Provide national estimates of imports of livestock and their products and mark all sources of
information. If the information is not available indicate “not available” in the appropriate space.
Source of Data
2000 2003 2005
Local Gov
Admin NGOs FAOSTAT
Records
Cattle
Goats
Sheep
Beef
Lamb (Mutton)
Goat Meat
Pork (Pig Meat)
Chicken
Milk
Eggs
Honey
Butter
Other……………………
11. Provide national estimates of exports of livestock and their products and mark all sources of
information. If the information is not available indicate “not available” in the appropriate space.
Source of Data
2000 2003 2005
Local Gov
Admin NGOs FAOSTAT
Records
Cattle
Goats
Sheep
Beef
Lamb (Mutton)
Goat Meat
Pork (Pig Meat)
Chicken
Milk
Eggs
Honey
Butter
Other……………………
49
D. Contributions of Livestock Products to Food Balance Sheet
12. Which data on livestock products do you Milk

contribute to the formulation of FBS? Meat (include beef, goat, sheep, pork, rabbit)
(Please mark all that apply) Poultry Meat (include all edible birds)
Eggs (all edible eggs)
None
E. Improving the Data collection and reliability

the collection of livestock production data in
the reliability of livestock production data in
F. Improving or Expanding the Food Balance Sheet
15. Please provide suggestions for additional

or alternative information or analyses that
you would like to see included in the expanded
Food Balance Sheet for your country?
G. Opinion about Food Balance Sheet


50
Annex 3c: Survey Questionnaire on Crop Production Utilization and Food Balance
Sheets
Planning for Expanded Food Balance Sheets for SADC – Fish Production and Utilization Questionnaire
for Member States
Dear ……………………………………………………………..,
is need to expand the composition of food items in calculating food balance sheets in order adequately
the food balance sheet should cover at least 75% of the calorific intake of the people in the region.
sheet. We can only do this if you provide us with data and information on fish production from your
country. Please take the time to respond to the questions in the questionnaire below.
Name of Country:
A. Fish Production in the Country
2. Provide national estimates of fish products and mark all sources of information. If the information is
not available indicate “not available” in the appropriate space.
Source of Data
2000 2003 2005 % fish
Local Gov Fish
Type (Metric (Metric (Metric Ministry available
Admin NGOs FAOSTAT folks or
Tons) Tons) Tons) Estimates for national
Records company
consumption
Marine
Industrial
Marine
Artisanal
Inland
industrial
Inland
Artisanal

Region/Province
national levels? No
Yes
District
No
51
B. Population Dependent on Fishing
2000 – (Million) 2003 – (Million) 2005 – (Million)

4. Total national population
5. Population dependent on fishing
D. Fish Imports and Exports
6. Provide national estimates of fish imports and mark all sources of information. If the information is not
available indicate “not available” in the appropriate space.
Source of Data
2000 2003 2005 Local
Fish
company
Records
Dried
Frozen
Fresh
Other
(Specify)…………………..
7. Provide national estimates of fish exports and mark all sources of information. If the information is not
available indicate “not available” in the appropriate space.
Source of Data
2000 2003 2005 Local
Fish
company
Records
Dried
Frozen
Fresh
Other
(Specify)…………………..
E. Contributions to the Food Balance Sheet
8. Which data on fish products do you Inland Artisanal Fish

contribute to the formulation of FBS? Marine Artisanal Fish
(Please mark all that apply) Other (please specify)
None
9. Assess the degree of Reliability of Data (Please mark one degree of for each crop)
Production
Source Inland Inland Marine Marine Imports Exports
Industrial Artisanal Industrial Artisanal
Not reliable
Low reliability
Reliable
Very Reliable
52
F. Improving the Data collection and reliability

the collection of fish production data in
the reliability of fish production data in
G. Improving or Expanding the Food Balance Sheet
12. Please provide suggestions for

additional or alternative information or
analyses that you would like to see included
in the expanded Food Balance Sheet for
your country?
H. Opinion about Food Balance Sheet


53
Annex 4: Terms of Reference for the Expanded Food Balance Sheet
AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (AIMS)

MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF REGIONAL FOOD SUPPLY AND DEMAND
TOR
EXPANDED FOOD BALANCE SHEET
1. Background and Rationale
The SADC region has used the food balance sheet approach to food security assessment since 1986
when the Regional Early Warning System was established. The approach quantifies a
country/region’s food supply and demand during a specified reference period and obtains an estimate
of food deficit or surplus. The main strength of analyzing overall food security in this way is that it
offers an objective methodology based on quantifiable facts rather than qualitative judgments, thereby
allowing for possible comparisons and aggregation of food security assessments across countries.
Ideally and in order to obtain a full picture of the overall food security situation in the country/region
using this approach, all food commodities, from whatever source, should be quantified and included in
the balance sheet. This would mean including in the region’s balance sheet cereal and non-cereal
food crops, root crops, fruits, livestock and livestock products, fish and many other food products.
However, the current use of the food balance sheet approach in the region is restricted to cereal food
commodities, with only a few countries including some non-cereal crops such as cassava, plantains
and sweet potatoes. The main reason for this was two fold;
a) It was generally thought that cereals were the most important foods commodities
accounting for about 75% of the calorific intake in most SADC countries;
b) Production and other supply and demand data on non-cereal food crops and other food
commodities were either not available or greatly unreliable data.
However, recent years have shown the importance of non-cereal crops in the region as source of food
especially during the frequent drought periods, which have negatively affected cereal crop production.
Even the 75% calorific intake does not apply to most countries as indicated in the table below. Data
from the FAO Global Information and Early Warning System on food and agriculture indicate that only
Lesotho had 75% share of total calorie from cereals in July 1995. The same applies to the data in
June 2004. Comparison between July 1995 and June 2004 cereal calorie intake shows with the
exception of Lesotho and Namibia, the percentage caloric intake of cereal has either remained the
same or actual decreased. All this shows the importance of including non-cereal food crops and other
food such as fish and livestock products in the food balance in order to get a clearer picture of food
security situation in the country when using the balance sheet.
54
Table 1: Share of cereals in total calorie intake
Country Cereal’s share: %age of total calorie

July 1995 June 2004
Angola 35 32
Botswana 55 51
DRC na 30
Lesotho 75 78
Malawi 70 58
Mauritius 48 45
Mozambique 53 43
Namibia 48 64
South Africa 54 54
Swaziland 55 44
Tanzania 60 51
Zambia 70 65
Zimbabwe 66 58
Source: FAO GIEWS: Food Supply situation and Crop Prospect in Sub-Saharan Africa – Reports: No.2
July, 1995 and No. 2 June 2004.
It should however, be emphasised that the food balance analysis only provides an assessment of the
adequacy of overall food supplies by indicating the extent of any food shortfall/surplus, thus
quantifying the amount of food that needs to be imported or is available for export. It does not include
issues of accessibility which is another important aspect of food security assessment.
2. Issues to be addressed in the Proposal
While it may be impractical to include all food commodities available to people in the balance sheet,
there is, nevertheless an urgent need to expand food items in the regions food balance sheet in order
adequately analyse the food security situation in Member States. As a rule of thumb, the food balance
sheet should probably cover at least 75% of the calorific intake of the people. As indicated above the
current cereal balance falls short of this.
Issues to be addressed in this consultancy will therefore be:

a) What are the main food commodities?
b) How reliable is data sets on these main food commodities? How can the data be improved?
c) How can the data on these commodities be incorporated into the expanded food balance
sheet? What is the appropriate method to be used in aggregating the various foods in a food
balance sheet?
3. Statement of Objectives
The main objective will be to expand the food balance sheet used in the region to include non-cereal
food commodities. The aim is to cover at least 75% of the calorific intake in each country cereal
balance sheet.
55
4. Methodology
i) Activities
The consultant will be expected to provide SADC FANR with well researched advice and methods of
incorporating other food commodities into the regional and national balance sheet. In order to do this,
the consultant will prepare a document based on consultation with some Member States and review
of the literature and conduct a workshop to present the results.
ii) Outputs
The consultant will develop a mechanism of incorporating non-cereal food commodities in the food
balance sheets of SADC Member States and the Region. Implementation of the proposed mechanism
will start soon after the workshop.
iii) Beneficiaries
The implementation of the expanded food balance sheet will help improve food security analysis in
the region. This will benefit all stakeholders who use the food security information for planning
purposes in both emergency and development situations. The main beneficiaries will, therefore,
include Governments, donor communities, SADC Secretariat and private traders.
iv) Risks and Assumptions
It is assumed that accurate data is available or will be made available on the various non-cereal food
commodities to be incorporated in the food balances. This is crucial before the expanded balance
sheets are used for food security analysis. Several countries are currently already collecting data on
various food commodities such as fish, livestock, non-cereal crops and others, but the accuracy of the
data sets have to be verified.
5. Scope of Work
The consultant will, in consultation with FANR Directorate, visit at least three representative Member
States to look at their food balance sheet and how they can be expanded to accommodate other food
commodities. He/she will also examine the availability and quality of data sets of other food
commodities. For the rest of the Member States, the consultant will have to depend on literature and
other sources of information. The results of his/her consultation and study will be presented at a
workshop to be attended by representatives some stakeholders from SADC Member States.
In particular, the consultant will
• Consult and do literature review of the main food commodities consumed in Member States
for incorporation into the balance sheet;
• Review the accuracy of the data on the various food commodities and advise on how to
improve methods of data collection;
• Develop guidelines on how to expand the current food balance sheet to include other food
commodities;
• Produce a Report on the Consultancy detailing all the above issues;
• Conduct a workshop to present the results of the consultancy.
6. Qualification and Experience
• At least a Masters Degree in Statistics or related Subjects;

• Must have worked for at 10 years in Food Security and early warning related area;
• Must have good knowledge and experience in Food Balance Sheets within the SADC Region;
• Must have experience in statistical crop data collection methodologies;
• Must be a SADC National.
7. Budget: As per 2005/06 SADC Secretariat Budget
56

Study On The Expanded Food Balance Sheet 2006

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Study On The Expanded Food Balance Sheet 2006

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SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT

A Report on the Expanded Food Balance Sheets

Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Natural

Agricultural Information Management System

The Secretariats appreciates and acknowledges the contribution of Dr. Vedasto

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................. 2

Table 1: Percent Production of Cereals and Non-Cereals in Some Member States…………14

1.1 Organization of the Report

1.2 Context of Food Balance Sheets

1.3 Conceptual Challenges of Food Balance Sheets

1.4 Justification for Expanded Food Balance Sheets

1.5 Purpose and Objectives of the Consultancy

1.6 Implementation of the Consultancy

2 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

2.1 Responses to Questionnaires from Member States

2.2 Major Food Crops Produced and Reliability of Data

Table 1: Percent Production of Cereals and Non-Cereals in Some Member States

Table 2: Average Percent of Food Production by Crop in Tanzania

2.2.2 Reliability of Crop Production Data and Strategies for Improvement

2.3 Livestock Production and Reliability of Data

Table 3: Livestock Products from SADC Member States in 2004 (MT)

Angola 85,000 1,260 9,225 7,740 27,885 195,000 4,300

Botswana 30,000 2,100 6,060 9,360 375 105,350 3,000

DRC 12,623 2,775 18,471 10,604 23,810 5,000 6,000

Lesotho 8,710 3,100 1,935 1,800 2,775 23,700 1,512

Malawi 15,990 402 6,012 15,280 21000 35,000 19,500

Mauritius 500 32 200 28,720 825 4,000 5,200

Mozambique 38,100 768 1,944 39,600 12840 68,756 14,000

Namibia 60,840 9,000 4,440 3,640 577 105,000 2,465

South Africa 589,760 108,000 36,000 972,600 123460 2,552,000 339,440

Swaziland 12,500 130 2,880 5,000 1133 37,500 1,050

Tanzania 246,330 10,320 30,600 44,000 13280 935,000 35,445

Zambia 40,800 546 4,728 36,500 11000 64,200 46,400

Zimbabwe 102,375 616 12,720 35,650 26950 280,000 22,000

Total 1,243,528 139,049 135,215 1,210,494 265,910 4,410,506 500,312

Source: Adapted from the SADC-FANR, 2005 Progress Report

2.3.2 Reliability of Livestock Production Data and Strategies for Improvement

2.4 Fisheries Production and Reliability of Data

Mozambique 80,000 70,000 70,000 Mozambique 36,627 29,954 30,632

Namibia 0 0 na Namibia 605,656 577,838 623,786

Seychelles 3,300 4,842 4,723 Seychelles 20,534 28,383 27,686

South Africa na South Africa 610,000 594,741 680,000

Tanzania 46,666 48,702 49,900 Tanzania 1,533 1,297 1,868

2.4.2 Reliability of Fisheries Production Data and Strategies for Improvement

3 PLANNING FOR THE EXPANDED FOOD BALANCE SHEETS

Table 5: Standard Format for SADC Food Balance Sheets

3.2 Procedures for Expanding Food Balance Sheets

BOX: 3 Key to Table 6

Source: Adapted from Various Sources in Tanzania

Table 7: Example – Tanzania Food Commodities Production in 2000/01

Source: Adapted from Various Sources in Tanzania

Table 8: Composition of Major Food Commodities in SADC Countries in One

Source: Adapted from FAO, 2001: Food Balance Sheets

3.2.2 Use Established and Agreed Nutritional Requirements

Table 9: Example – Tanzania: Food Composition of Commodities Produced in 2000/01

Source: Adapted from Various Sources in Tanzania

Total Food Needed per day= 21,640 (17,135+2,579+1,926) MT

Source: Study on the Expanded Food Balance Sheets

Source: Study on the Expanded Food Balance Sheets

Source: Study on the Expanded Food Balance Sheets

Source: Study on the Expanded Food Balance Sheets

3.2.5 Preparing the Expanded Food Balance Sheets

Source: Study on the Expanded Food Balance Sheets